More than daily bread

A novel museum narrates how naan feeds the spirit of the people who live in the Tianshan Mountains' shadow, Erik Nilsson reports in Urumqi.

At Urumqi's Grand Bazaar, you don't just get a taste of Xinjiang culture — you can step into it, when you walk through the doorway framed by a bite taken out of the Naan House's bread-shaped facade.

Visitors to this building in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's capital, also known as the Grand Bazaar Naan Culture Museum, pose for photos while standing inside the tooth marks of the missing wedge of the enormous bread disc that forms its outer wall.

Its interior presents a gallery of curated culinary art. Edible sculptures hang from the walls and rise from tabletops.